My sister was off school and work yesterday, so she was planning an epic day of awesomeness. Her goal was to do some bike rides and hike. The plan was for me to skip my last class to go on a hike with her, but then she decided it would be better to mountain bike instead. I called up my friends and they said I could borrow a mountain bike. In fact, they had bike shoes to give to me someone didn’t want :)

I thought Hill was gonna pick me up but apparently she wasn’t planning on that. Instead, I ran barefoot to my friends’ house. I invited them to come and they were all for it. We did a bit of bike maintenance and then we were off. The free and fun feeling of riding a bike such as a mountain bike was incredible! It had been so long since I had ridden like that. Road biking is sooooo different. I was riding a single speed rigid bike (32/22). We got to the park and went right onto the trails. It was so much fun speeding over rocks and over dirt paths.

We met up with my sis and rode for a while until she had to go. Then we rode some more. I bled a couple times from falling a couple times, and it was great!

When we were done, we rode back to their house, and then I ran barefoot back to my dorm. I dropped my stuff off then ran a couple more miles barefoot. I have no idea why I haven’t been getting in more barefoot miles.

Then I went to eat and after that, I went rock climbing at our gym. I hadn’t been in a while and I really wanted to go even though none of my friends did. I bouldered mostly and sent this SICK boulder problem which is one of the hardest there. It’s got awkward positions, a difficult crimp, a sloping natural, and a big move. I LOVE IT. It took me a few tries, but everyone was happy I got it.

Then I played Halo and watched Misfits with friends. What a good day :)

Yesterday, Connor and I went climbing with Alex, who works at the rock wall at JMU, in our hometown of Richmond. There’s a great climbing spot by the canal walk on the other side of the river on the old manchester bridge. It’s basically these huge rock-bricks that you climb that has cracks and holds in it.

There’s the main pillar and 2 other smaller pillars there. You can top-rope a lot of it and lead almost all of it. After getting lost a couple times and having much difficulty finding the damn place, we catch Alex repelling down. After seeing that, we of course had to do it as well, and it was fun as hell.

We took it as a relaxed day, not doing any hard stuff. We climbed until the darkness took over, and then climbed a bit more. Alex took a beautiful picture of the Richmond city night sky.

It was a really fun day, and hopefully Connor, me, and another friend of ours hit up Peak Experiences for some indoor climbing later this week.

So yesterday, February 18 was Reach Out Climb - JMU’s biggest climbing competition. We hold 2 a year, Boulder Jam in the Fall and Reach Out in the Spring. Boulder Jam is mainly only open to JMU people, but Reach Out is available to anyone and everyone. Usually, climbing teams/clubs from William and Mary and UVA (Virginia colleges) come and compete. This is somewhat unfortunate because they have some good climbers whereas our best climbers are employees of the rock wall who can’t compete since they set routes and help with organization.

But anyway, we got there early morn to register and whatnot. This year, it started out with a bouldering session with a top-roping session afterwards. There were 4 different levels - Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Masters (35+). I chose to do Intermediate since I was definitely better than Novice but nowhere close to Advanced.

The bouldering routes were so great. Some of the easier ones were just right and didn’t challenge me too much. The harder ones really challenged me, but were still doable. Unfortunately, there was one route in my section I just couldn’t send after 6 tries even. It was the hardest one in my section, so I’m glad I go to JMU and can try it a lot.

The atmosphere had already proved to be incredible. Everyone helped beta each other, and someone would spot for someone they had never talked to. Everyone cheered each other on the entire time. There was competition int he air, but it was a totally friendly and cooperative thing.

We had a couple hours to kill as Heat 2 bouldered, so we (Chris and Connor) ate and watched a climbing movie. We went back and got right into it. There was only one heat, so the lines were ridiculous for a couple ropes. Also, the rules were you could only try one route once, and there were only 3 routes for each difficulty. There were different zones that you got points for getting within the zone.

I tried my first but fell before I got my foot up into the first zone. After this, I realized these routes are going to be harder than I ever could have imagined. The second one was a little easier and I almost got to zone 2, but then I fell.

On the last route, I really needed to get into at least zone 1 because top 2 scores count and I failed my first. So I was planning on getting this thing no matter what. Each move was pretty difficult with small holds and difficult positions. As soon as I was up, my friends were cheering me on, urging me on to each hold. For on move, I had to get my hand up over an overhang on to a positive, but the position before it is a little awkward. I jumped to it as much as I could and placed my hand right on that ledge. I could feel my body pulling my hand off, but I reacted by focusing my entire strength into holding on. As soon as it was obvious I was on, much of the crowd went “Yeahhhhh!” HAHAHAHA it was awesome!!! I felt so good. Then I used both hands to get up into the first zone. Then I fell while switching, but WHATEVS.

I ended up not placing at all which sucked because the prizes were INSANELY AWESOME. Oh well, it was a fantastic experience and I can’t wait to project the routes soon. 

Connor and I climbed at 4, and it was “BOMBER”. We did an all naturals route up one of the ropes, and that was tough, but doable. Then we tried all-naturals on another rope, and this one was a lot tougher. However, it was SO FRICKEN ENJOYABLE. It’s seriously one of my favorite routes, even if it does only go up like half the wall. It’s really crimpy and it’s just overall fantastic. After tomorrow, I’m not gonna do any exercise besides maybe a short run on wednesday. I don’t want to be sore for my ultra Saturday.

We went climbing outdoors with a buddy we met at the gym rock wall, Lane. We drove up there which took like 30 minutes, and then we hiked for 20 minutes to the rock faces. The hike was really nice and beautiful, passing sweet bays and mountain laurels. Lane tied the top anchor into a tree, and that was really nice because it gave us a little freedom as to where to climb on the wall. It was so cold, our hands immediately got numb, but you just gotta deal with it when you’re up there.

After we each climbed twice, we paused to have a lunch break. We stopped at this supermarket co-op in town and got dumplings and pita and hummus. The hummus was phenomenal, and the dumplings were scrumptious. Then, Lane brewed some green tea with a portable camp burner thingy. We put some pine needles and sweet bay leaves into the brew to spice it up and have some fun :) Then we named it Snowy Cliff and each drank it as a little tradition.

Then we switched to another rock face, each climbed twice, then head out. We used these leather gloves to climb that helped a bit with the hand numbness. It was a lot of fun, and it was really cool Lane took us out there.

I woke up a little earlier to fuel up for the climb today.

After class around 11:30, we head out to Franklin, West Virginia to do some climbing.

It was these 3 girls I know from my school and then this other guy they know who was really nice and pretty good.

We had to drive up and then down to through this one mountain range, and the trip only took like half an hour.

It was pretty sunny, but throughout the whole time, it would change from sunny to cloudy and cold to warm.

The first route we did was a 5.9, but it was still pretty tough since it was my first outdoor climb. It’s A LOT different than indoor climbing. Indoor climbing is so predictable. Outdoors, you really have to search for holds and be more creative. It’s also just a lot rougher. You know those really positive holds at the gym? They aren’t outside. The positive ones are either simply a shelf or a direction hold.

Before my climb, I lead belayed the other guy, causing the first digits of my fingers to get numb with coldness. Then I climbed, but it was pretty damn difficult. First of all, it was difficult for me to figure out what to do. Second of all, my hands were SO GODDAMN cold that it was insanely hard to feel the holds. I wasn’t sure if what I was feeling was a hold or the numbness of my hand. Also, it was difficult dealing with chalk when my hands were cold. Eventually I got it, and it was really rewarding.

I had lots of fun with climbing and the people :) Can’t wait to go again!

When I first started climbing, the plentiful and difficult bouldering problems are what drew me in. It wasn’t top-roping with its heights and endurance. It was the quick, short, and powerful moves of bouldering.

For the first time since then, I have felt the same passion for bouldering I once have. They recently set a lot of cool routes, and I tried a couple for the first time. It was really nice to feel that love for bouldering again :)

However, I will not lost sight of top-roping because that’s where its at. Bouldering will only get you so far. With top-roping, the possibilities are endless.

Hopefully we will go outdoor climbing tomorrow and it will be AWESOME.

That’s just a cool name for one of the routes at our wall. I flashed it two days ago, but wasn’t able to complete it today since I was so pumped from an earlier route.

On one of the faces, the hardest route began as a difficult boulder problem for a competition a while back. They completed it the whole way up, and it’s one of the hardest there. I attempted it Monday, but only got halfway up. Today, I persisted and was finally able to get it. It felt soooo great, because the moves make you twist and turn in a different way than the norm.

I was so pumped after the route, I could hardly climb anymore. WHATEVA. Afterwards, Connor and I got smoothies. GOOD DAY

My plan was to run for like 20-30 minutes, climb at the gym for an hour, run some more, eat, go back and study. I started off my run while it was sunny and cold, and I immediately felt pretty strong. I felt so strong, in fact, I decided to make my little run a fartlek (speed play). I would say to myself, “OK, I’m going to run from this sign to that lamp post.” I did that for a while, never sprinting downhill, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I ran for like 25-30 minutes before I got to the gym. Fortunately, I knew everyone that was working there today. Yay! Today was the first time I fully completed a route on the vertical wall, so that was nice. It wasn’t 100% easy, but if it was, it wouldn’t have been much of an accomplishment. I then failed at the bouldering cave - not being able to do a route I did twice a few days ago. But oh well! I’M NOT BITTER!

LOLJK. So after an hour, I ran like a couple minutes straight to the dining hall (not as much as I had hoped). I demolished a huge burrito, a little carton of 2% milk, and then jogged back to the dorm. I’m slowly being able to run after eating - an important skill to have for ultrarunning. Keep on running, everyone!